EVANS, Ga. (WJBF) – The CSRA’s first medical cannabis dispensary is coming to Columbia County.

Trulieve is one of the first two companies allowed to produce and sell medical cannabis in Georgia.

The new location at 4218 Washington Rd. – across from Academy Sports – will be the fifth in the state.

“As you see many of our veterans being treated with medical marijuana, and other folks with PTSD and anxiety disorders, I think it’s a good thing to have,” said James Jenkins, a Columbia County resident.

Medical cannabis can be used to help treat symptoms of many different diseases and illnesses.

“I’ve had friends that have had cancer that weren’t eating because of the nausea, and the medical marijuana helped them to give them an appetite so they would eat, so in that sense it helped,” said Bob Bero, another resident.

While there is support for the dispensary from many people we spoke to, others aren’t so sure.

They tell us they’re worried about the impact it could have on their children and their families.

“I don’t care to be around it. I don’t much less want my daughter around it, but I know it is in the world, it’s gonna happen,” said a resident named Amber. “She’s gonna see it, smell it, she’s smelt it before, she questioned me. I honestly don’t really want it here but that’s not my say so.”

It is legal in Georgia for a dispensary to sell medical cannabis low-THC oil for patients who are registered with the Department of Public Health.

Although people we spoke to had different opinions about the dispensary coming to the area, most of them tell us they just want it to be regulated.

“I think it should be a regulated thing because then that’s when you start getting the illegal activity going on in the neighborhood,” Jenkins said.

The company tells us they are working on opening that location in September. County leaders didn’t have a comment on the new business.